Energy Columns in BusinessWorld

*  BusinessWorld  February 27, 2023.  ----------- Feb. 24 last week marked the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Ukraine crisis has morphed from a border war between the two countries to a potential nuclear conflict in Europe. Here are five major crisis narratives which have had a big impact on economic growth and individual freedom.... 3. The climate/environment crisis.  This is based on the persistent narrative that there is no natural or nature-made climate change, only man-made climate change; that there is no natural warming-cooling cycle, only “unprecedented, unequivocal” warming; that “extreme weather” is getting more frequent, more deadly, and that there is no natural cycle of strong and weak cycle energy. Thus, heavy intervention by governments and multilaterals to fight less rain and more rain, less snow and more snow, less cold and more cold, less cats and more cats. No, the number of strong storms and hurricanes is not increasing. No, the accumulated cy

*  BusinessWorld  Feb. 13, 2023. ------------ Last week, several important pieces of news and events came out. I am summarizing them here.... 10. Last Friday, the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) held a media briefing and they reported two pieces of good news. One was the launch of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) Mindanao on Jan. 26. Two is the start of operation of the Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Program (MVIP) this coming March. This is a long-delayed project by the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) — the original target was end-2020, which became 2021, then became 2022. With President Marcos Jr. at the WESM Mindanao launch and announcing the March 2023 operation of MVIP, the NGCP will have no more excuses to keep delaying completion of the project. The MVIP is important because Mindanao often has power surpluses — it has many new coal power plants — while Visayas and Luzon have occasional power deficits. In Mindanao, co